This invention is a method of operating a system having multiple finite state machines where each finite state machine generates a ready signal when its operation is complete. This invention selects a set of the finite state machines to participate in an operation. If one or more of the finite state machines are selected for operation, the method waits until all selected finite state machines generate the ready signal. If none of the finite state machines are selected for operation, the method waits until at least one non-selected finite state machine generates the ready signal. This waiting can be accomplished with a precharge-conditional discharge circuit used for voting.